FIG. 1 illustrates a known vehicle 10 in schematic representation showing numerous components including a battery 12 and exterior vehicle lights. The exterior vehicle lights include headlights 14 which illuminate a ground surface in front of the vehicle 10 upon which the vehicle 10 travels as is well known to those of skill in the art. The headlights 14 may include low and high beams. The exterior vehicle lights may also include one or more supplemental lights 16 which may be positioned at the front and the rear of the vehicle 10 and sometimes the sides of the vehicle as well. Numerous supplemental lights 16 are well known and include turn signal lights 15, park lights, running lights, and brake lights, though brake lights 18 typically are only provided at the rear of the vehicle 10, as shown. As is also known, sometimes the same light source, such as a light bulb or light emitting diode (LED), may serve more than one supplemental light purpose; such as a brake light and a turn signal light. The vehicle may have an electronic control unit (ECU) 28 that controls one or more of the electrical system or subsystems in the vehicle 10 in a known manner. As one non-limiting example, the ECU 28 may be used to control a rearview camera 48 which operates in a known manner.
Still referring to FIG. 1, an operator adjustable vehicle light control 20, typically positioned within the vehicle interior, can be adjusted by a user in order to control the exterior vehicle lights; such as to turn the exterior vehicle lights into ON and OFF conditions and/or adjust the intensity of illumination. Vehicle light wiring 22 is used to electrically connect the operator adjustable vehicle light control 22 to the vehicle headlights 14, and the supplemental lights 16 including turn signal lights 15. The vehicle 10 may include at least one brake 24, four shown at the four wheels, which are operable to slow down the vehicle's speed in a known manner. A braking device 26, such as a brake pedal, may be operated by the user to activate the brakes 24. In order to illuminate the brake lights 18, the braking device 26 may be electrically connected to the vehicle light wiring 22, as shown. As the basic operation of external vehicle lights is well known to those of skill in the art, further details will not be provided here.
FIG. 2 illustrates the vehicle 10 of FIG. 1 but with an auxiliary implement 30, in the form of a snowplow, mounted onto the front of the vehicle 10. An operator adjustable auxiliary implement control 34 may be operated by the user to operate one or more functions of the auxiliary implement 30; such as to raise and lower a snowplow blade 36 by way of a hydraulic unit 38. The vehicle's headlights 14 and front positioned supplemental lights 16 which may include turn signal lights 15, however, are commonly obscured by the auxiliary implement 30. Therefore, an auxiliary lighting system 32, including auxiliary headlights 40 and auxiliary supplemental lights 42 including auxiliary turn signal lights 46, are used in place of, or in addition to, the vehicle headlights 14 and supplemental lights 16. While known auxiliary lighting systems generally work well for their intended purposes, they are known to have problems.
One problem with known auxiliary lighting systems, with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, is that numerous electrical connections must be made between the auxiliary wiring 44 and the vehicle light wiring 22 so that the auxiliary headlights 40 and auxiliary supplemental lights 42 can be coordinated, powered, and controlled by the vehicle's existing electrical system including the operator adjustable vehicle light control 20. Current installation techniques involve disconnecting the vehicle's original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) light wiring 22, often in the form of a harness, and splicing or otherwise connecting the new auxiliary wiring 44, also often in the form of a harness, to the OEM wiring 22 in order to provide auxiliary lighting. This part of the process is labor intensive and objectionable as it requires altering the vehicle's existing electrical system. For example, the time necessary to initially install and mount a snowplow that utilizes an auxiliary lighting system to a vehicle is approximately four hours. The process of installing the auxiliary wiring 44 consumes approximately two and one half hours of that time. Furthermore, given the complexity of the electrical interconnections required, an electrical technician should be used to assure that proper connections have been made.
Therefore, a simpler installation process would reduce the amount of time and effort necessary to install an auxiliary implement utilizing an auxiliary lighting system and would eliminate the need for major alterations to the vehicle's OEM electrical systems.
With reference now to FIG. 3, many vehicles that are suited to operate an auxiliary implement, such as a snowplow or spreader, are trucks or other vehicles that include a trailer hitch 52 that includes a hitch receiver 54 and a trailer plug 50 that may be protected with a lid or cover 56. It is believed that approximately 95% of trucks currently manufactured feature trailer hitches. More recently, manufacturers offer trucks with towing packages, including a hitch receiver and a trailer plug, installed as standard equipment. Trucks that do not include these features as standard equipment from the manufacturer have the towing package available as an option from the factory. Vehicles other than trucks, such as cars and all-terrain vehicles (also known as “ATVs”) may also offer such hitch receivers and/or trailer plugs and may also be candidates according to some aspects of the present teaching. A hitch receiver 54, as is well known to those of skill in the art, is a tube adapted to receive a portion of a trailer or other device so that the trailer or other device can be physically attached to the vehicle.
FIG. 4 shows a vehicle 10A that is similar to vehicle 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 except for the addition of trailer plug 50. A trailer plug, as is well known to those of skill in the art, is a type of electric plug. Each trailer plug 50 includes wiring that indicates the condition of the vehicle supplemental lights 16. Trailer plugs come in multiple varieties and are designed to power and control trailer features such as brake lights, turn signals, running lights, and the like. The two most common trailer plugs are the 7-way plug and the 4-way plug, which will be discussed further below. Many trucks now come with the 7-way plug installed from the factory, as discussed above. Other common plugs include a 6-way, a 5-way, and a 4-way plug. There are also a wide variety of European type trailer plugs with different wiring configurations than those just described.
The use of a controller with a vehicle's electric plug to simplify the installation process of an auxiliary lighting system is disclosed in Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/356,618 filed Nov. 20, 2016 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSTALLING AND OPERATING AN AUXILIARY LIGHTING SYSTEM USING A VEHICLE LIGHT PLUG, and Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/997,341 filed Jan. 15, 2016 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSTALLING AND OPERATING AN AUXILIARY LIGHTING SYSTEM USING A VEHICLE ELECTRIC PLUG, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. While these auxiliary lighting systems work well for their intended purposes, a few problems remain.
One problem is that, depending on the particular design of the vehicle's electric plug, the trailer turn signal and brake signal may come on a common wire. In this case, the auxiliary turn signal light(s) may turn “ON” when the vehicle's brakes are applied. This may be undesirable when the auxiliary turn signal light(s) is front facing.
Another problem is related to known taillight adaptors. Known taillight adaptors prevent the trailer's turn signal lights from turning “ON” when the vehicle's brakes are applied. The resulting problem, however, is that the adaptor also prevents the same lights from operating as hazard lights.
Yet another known problem with the use of a vehicle's electric plug is related to the fact that some vehicles have electronic control units that are configured to disable certain features when the electric plug is used. Some vehicles, for example, automatically disable at least a portion of the vehicle's rearview camera system when the vehicle's electric plug is in use. Other examples include the disablement of certain peripheral object sensors when the vehicle's electric plug is in use. Such disabling functionality may be helpful when a trailer is attached to the back of the vehicle but may be undesirable when the vehicle's electric plug is used in non-trailer applications.
Improved auxiliary lighting systems and controllers are needed to reduce or eliminate these problems.